MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company -- now known as Berkshire Hathaway Energy -- through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, storage, distribution, and supply of energy. It generates energy from coal, natural gas, geothermal, wind, and hydroelectric resources.

The company owns and operates an electric utility company in the western United States; a combined electric and natural gas utility company in the midwestern United States; natural gas pipeline companies in the United States; electricity distribution companies in Great Britain; a diversified portfolio of domestic and international independent power projects; and a residential real estate brokerage firm in the United States. It sells natural gas and transportation services to utilities, marketers, municipalities, and end-use customers. The company’s real estate services include mortgage originations, title and closing services, property and casualty insurance, home warranties, and other home-related services.

Since 2006, PacifiCorp has been a wholly owned subsidiary of MidAmerican Energy Holdings.[2]

As of December 31, 2007, MidAmerican served approximately 6.2 million electricity customers and end users, as well as approximately 0.7 million natural gas customers; operated approximately 17,000 miles of pipeline in operation; and had interests in approximately 17,000 net owned megawatts of power generation facilities in operation and under construction.

MidAmerican Energy Holdings, formerly known as CalEnergy Company, Inc., was founded in 1971 and changed its name to MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company in 1999. The company is based in Des Moines, Iowa.

As of January 31, 2008, MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company operated as a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.[3]

Lobbyists

MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company spent $225,000 on its in-house lobbying team during 2008. The registered lobbyists were Craig Montesano, Jonathan Weisgall and Jay Carriere. (Carriere was only working on the account during the first two quaters of the year).[4]

ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our PRWatch.org site.

Power portfolio

Out of its total 14,411 megawatts (MW) of electric generating capacity in 2005 (1.35% of the U.S. total), MidAmerican produced 71.3% from coal, 15.3% from natural gas, 7.9% from hydroelectricity, 2.6% from geothermal, 2.5% from wind, and 0.4% from oil. MidAmerican owns power plants in California, Idaho, Iowa, Illinois, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.[7]

Proposed coal unit closures

In its April 2012 filing, PacifiCorp announced its intention to stop burning coal at Naughton Power Plant unit 3. PacifiCorp is debating converting the plant to natural gas, primarily to serve summer peak load in Utah and Wyoming.[10]

Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from MidAmerican Energy coal plants

In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants.[11] Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.[12]

The report built on an earlier 2010 report by the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice, "Out of Control: Mounting Damages from Coal Ash Waste Sites", which documented similar damage at another 31 coal combustion waste dumpsites in 14 states. When added to the 67 damage cases that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has already acknowledged, the total number of sites polluted by coal ash or coal scrubber sludge comes to at least 137 in 34 states.

MidAmerican annual toxins release

A Center for American progress (CAP) analysis of 2009 Toxics Release Inventory data found that MidAmerican’s power plants in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Utah and Wyoming released a total of nearly 7,000 pounds of lead and mercury into the air.

4,063 pounds of lead emitted, which affects kidney function, the nervous system, immune system, reproductive and development systems, as well as the cardiovascular system and oxygen carrying capacity of the blood, according to the EPA.

2,689 pounds of mercury emitted, which harm vital organs and brain function, according to Physicians for Social Responsibility.[16]

Coal Plant Cancellations

In 2007, PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of MidAmerican Energy, cancelled six proposed coal-fired power plants. These included Utah's Intermountain Power Project Unit 3, Jim Bridger Unit 5, and four proposed plants previously included in PacifiCorp's Integrated Resource Plan. The cancellations came in the wake of pressure from regulators and citizen groups, including a petition drive organized by Salt Lake City commercial real estate broker Alexander Lofft and directed at Buffett personally. The 1,600 petitioners, who described themselves in a letter to Buffett as "a collection of citizens, business owners and managers, service professionals, public servants, and organization representatives ... your friends and new customers here in Utah," explained that, in their view, any further expansion of coal generation in Utah would "compromise our health, obscure our viewsheds, shrink and contaminate our watersheds, and thin out our most beloved snowpack," concluding that "our attractiveness as a place to live and work is also threatened, and so is our economic competitiveness as a major metro area and a state, compromising our recent gains in income and property values."[17]

Existing Coal Mines

Proposed nuclear plant

As of 2011, MidAmerican Energy is pursuing legislation to build a small nuclear plant in Iowa. At 540 megawatts, it would be among the nation's smallest. The Iowa House's version of the nuclear power bill, House File 561, is on debate in April 2011. The Midwest grid has as much as 10,000 megawatts of surplus power, raising questions about whether the state needs additional power plants. MidAmerican said that it is required by law to provide power to its customers, and buying it off the grid is expensive, while surplus power can be sold to other utilities. Environmental groups say the utility should be focused more on beefing up energy conservation programs and building on some solid investments in wind, solar and other renewable energy sources.[18]

Renewable energy

In May 2013, Iowa Gov. Branstad announced MidAmerican Energy will make a $1.9 billion investment in Iowa for wind energy projects, adding up to 1,050 megawatts of up to 656 new wind turbines in the state by year-end 2015. According to MidAmerican officials, the expansion will add no net cost to customers and will help stabilize electric rates over the long term by providing a rate reduction totaling $10 million per year by 2017, commencing with a $3.3 million reduction in 2015.[19]